Colorado News

Police: Evan Ebel had bomb-making materials, directions to home in car

By Sadie GurmanThe Denver Post

Posted:
03/26/2013 01:34:37 PM MDT

Photo of the 1991 Cadillac driven by Evan Ebel in wild chase and shootout in Texas. (Sadie Gurman, The Denver Post)

Evan Ebel's life hit bottom when he went to prison. Things got worse after he was paroled. He was killed Thursday.

Investigators found bloody clothes, bomb-making materials and directions to Colorado prison chief Tom Clements' Monument home in the back of Evan Ebel's 1991 Cadillac DeVille, according to court paperwork filed Tuesday in Texas.

Detectives who searched the car after Ebel crashed it during a gunfight with Texas sheriff's deputies also found a Domino's Pizza box, shirt and visor — items investigators believe Ebel took from slain delivery driver Nathan Leon to disguise himself at Clements' front door.

Authorities suspect Ebel killed Clements when he answered the doorbell on March 19 and was also involved in Leon's slaying two days earlier.

Texas sheriff's deputies shot and killed Ebel, 28, on Thursday as he opened fire on them after a wild chase and shootout.

Among them was a "document with apparent bomb-making instructions" that was inside a black backpack; documents from the department of corrections; maps; handwritten directions; and "apparent letters from Nate," according to the inventory released by the Wise County Clerk's Office. Texas authorities gave those items to El Paso County sheriff's detectives, who are investigating Clements' murder.

Wise County Sheriff David Walker said the DOC documents were related to Ebel, a member of the 211 Crew white-supremacist prison gang who was released on mandatory parole on Jan. 28. But it was not immediately clear whether the "letters from Nate" involved Leon or someone else.

"We don't know who Nate is," Walker said.

Leon's body was found in an open space in Golden the night of March 17, hours after the pizza shop called police to report him missing. Walker confirmed that investigators believe Ebel used Leon's uniform in a ruse to lure Clements to open his door.

Denver police detectives, who are investigating the killing, collected from the Cadillac a plastic bag containing a mask and sunglasses; a Domino's "Heat Wave" bag; a pizza box from inside the bag; and a Domino's shirt and visor. They also pulled a pair of blood-covered tan pants from a cooler in the trunk of the car, the inventory shows.

They also collected a digital voice recorder, a roll of duct tape and zip ties.

Also, a Uniden Model UDW155 surveillance system, surveillance cameras and a digital voice recorder were in the trunk of the Cadillac.

Neither Denver police nor the El Paso County sheriff's office would comment Tuesday about the significance of the evidence.

The sheriff's department said Monday that the 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun Ebel used in the Texas shootout was the same gun used to kill Clements. Authorities have traced the weapon but have not said where or how Ebel got it.

Also unclear is why he headed to Texas. Police have said they would research the path he took to get there.

"We think he was going somewhere — we just have to figure out where he was going," Walker said.